Admit it. We’ve all had the misfortune of meeting a child who just didn’t seem quite right. Willful and mischievous? Ill-behaved and undisciplined? A “bad seed” perhaps? Of course, we smile politely and pretend we don’t notice…but we keep an eye on them while we’re there, nevertheless. It could all be simply the fact that the child is very, very ... Read More »
These days, when I’m not living and working in my inner city apartment in London’s Bermondsey, I wake up each morning on Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula. My home here is a stone house built low in the grassy foothills of the last mountain range in Western Europe. The house has stood for over a hundred years. It was built by men ... Read More »
So you’ve read of the Dullahan, who takes your life when your time is up. And you now know of the Dearg-Due, who takes your blood if she has the chance. But what about the thing that takes your soul, whenever it pleases? Nearing Halloween, or Samhain, it seems easier to let your mind wander to darker things. Cooler nights, ... Read More »
This October saw the release of Patrick Clifford’s second solo album, entitled Chance Of A Start. I’ve been listening to Patrick’s music for some time now, enjoying his unique covers of many of my old favorites, from Spancil Hill to The Auld Triangle, and finding myself having something new to sing along to in some of Patrick’s original recordings. This ... Read More »
You’ve probably heard of the saying, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” No one wants to be on the receiving end of one of those. People native to our beloved Ireland are probably familiar with the legend of the Dearg-Due. One of the most tragic and frightening cases of “a woman scorned,” her legend is still whispered at ... Read More »
Ardgillan Castle is a distinctive country house, set in a 194-acre demesne near Balbriggan in Co. Dublin. The house was built by the Reverend Robert Taylor in 1738 and remained in the Taylor family until 1962. In 1982 the house became the property of the local authority of Fingal County Council and opened its doors to the public for the ... Read More »
Oh sure enough, there be no snakes in Ireland to be afear of, but that doesn’t mean the woods are altogether safe. Yer familiar with such classics of Irish folklore as the Leprechaun an’ the Banshee, but have ye ever laid eyes on the Dullahan? Ye’d know if ye had, that’s a fact. (I can only keep up that Irish-Americanized-accented ... Read More »
Bantry House is the ancestral home of the Earls of Bantry which is situated overlooking Bantry Bay in West Cork. The title lapsed in 1891 but the house is still owned and lived in by the direct descendant of the 1st Earl of Bantry, Egerton Shelswell-White and his family. Since 1946 the House and Garden has been open to the ... Read More »
I remember sitting in classrooms back home in Ireland many years ago and listening to my teachers depicting scenes for my classmates and I, about our ancestors and of the struggles they fought through. One such set of struggles were those of the Christian monks and priests who... Read More »
At first glance, he appears as quiet and unassuming as his name. Peter Browne. Average height and weight. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Initially, the thing that stands out is his shoulder-length blonde hair, which falls slightly in his face, almost adding to that shy and inconspicuous demeanor by giving him a place to hide. His eyes might even ... Read More »
Got Ireland
